Sunset magazine, founded in 1898 as a way to lure travelers West and which went on to help generations live their best California lives, has a new owner.

Time Inc. announced on Thursday it had sold the title to Regent, a private equity firm in Beverly Hills, run by a Californian who grew up with magazine and said he was obsessed with acquiring it from the moment he heard it was up for sale.

“A lot of other magazines don’t have the emotional feel you get with Sunset,” said the buyer, Michael Reinstein, whose firm also owns a string of history and military publications, including Wild West Magazine and Army Times, as well as a luxury salon business and other holdings.

Time bought Sunset in 1990 from William and Melvin Lane, members of the family that had scooped up the little magazine as the Great Depression loomed and turned it into a standard-bearer for Western gardeners and those pursuing the art of California living, complete with patio parties, car camping and the skillful use of an outdoor grill.

The sale was in play before this week’s surprise announcement of a publishing deal in which the Meredith Corporation, which owns titles like Better Homes and Gardens and AllRecipes, said it would buy Time Inc. in a deal valued at nearly $3 billion.

Sunset is one of four publications whose sales were in the works before the deal was made. Sales of Essence, Golf and Time Inc. UK are also being brokered, said Jill Davison, a spokeswoman for Time Inc.

Sunset’s editor, Irene Edwards, broke the news to the staff of about 30 on Thursday.

“It’s an amazing scenario,” she said in an interview. Sunset had long been something of a dinghy attached to the back of Time Inc.’s ship. “We were just a very small brand in a large portfolio, and we got a commensurate amount of resources.”

Some staff members were told they would not have jobs, and some parts of the business will be restructured. There will be a greater focus on the magazine’s wine and food events and its model homes, which are designed to showcase innovations in architecture and construction. Reinstein also plans to invest more in the magazine’s digital and video offerings, and to make better use of longtime Sunset personalities like the food editor Margo True, a veteran of both Saveur and Gourmet.

The Southern Pacific Railroad Company started Sunset as a promotional travel brochure, but it quickly grew along with the American West, and eventually became a prototype for…